Emraan Hashmi clarifies he’s not doing Awarapan 2 to cash in on the nostalgia after Ba***ds of Bollywood: ‘It’s been seven years in the making’

It’s apt that the 10th year of Netflix India kicks off with a show headlined by Emraan Hashmi. Over the past year, he’s become to the streaming platform what Radhika Apte was to it at the time of its inception. “Emraan Apte, the new face of Netflix India,” pronounces a co-star. Although he had headlined Netflix India’s 2019 espionage show Bard of Blood, it’s only after his standout cameo in Aryan Khan’s directorial debut The Bads of Bollywood that the Emraan Hashmi nostalgia took over the internet all over again. It was only apt that the “serial kisser” of the Vishesh Films hits of the 2000s played an intimacy coordinator in the show last year.

“I don’t think anyone owes anyone anything. But it’s been fruitful. You don’t plan for this. You just do good work. How things get accepted, blown up, and get loved by the audience is not in our hands as artists. We’ve put in equal amounts of honesty and hard work in all these projects. It’s just that the virality is not in our hands,” Emraan tells SCREEN in an exclusive interview. He points out that not only The Bads of Bollywood, but his latest film, Suparn Varma’s period social drama Haq, has also been getting a lot of love. “It’s good that Bads worked, and that cameo blew up. Haq is apparently a huge, smashing hit. It’s #6 worldwide on the worldwide charts,” says Hashmi.

Emraan Hashmi in Haq.

His latest outing with the streaming platform is Neeraj Pandey’s thriller show Taskaree, which is set in the world of customs officers at airports. “I feel there should’ve been some kind of a tribute to customs officers and the work they put in without demanding any acknowledgement in return. They’re just doing their duty. But it’s a very tough job, and due credit to them. Unfortunately, nothing had been made on them, but ya, better late than never. It’s a show that applauds their work over so many years in our country,” says Hashmi.

At the trailer launch, Hashmi joked that he was often asked to step aside at the immigration counter because his “profile probably matched someone else’s.” Not only him, but even Shah Rukh Khan was often not spared by the US immigration office. He was ironically asked to step aside at an airport just like his character Rizwan Khan in Karan Johar’s 2010 political romantic drama My Name Is Khan. He later joked that whenever he begins to feel like a star, a visit to the US ends up grounding him.

“I would declare my goods in the red channel, and not feel pompous that the customs would let it go if I have any goods to declare. But I think hopefully, after this show, we’ll all take the centre channel and go past the red and green channels,” jokes Hashmi. He believes that it’s also the ‘profiling’ by the audience that continues to chase not only him, but also the biggest superstars of the country. “Shah Rukh Khan has this (opens his arms wide). The Kkkk… (from Yash Chopra’s 1991 hit romantic thriller Darr) is still chasing him. Salman Khan has the shirt off and the Dabangg belt hook step. Everybody tries to label things. I don’t think we should take it seriously. I’m sure these artists also don’t take it seriously,” argues Hashmi.

Emraan Hashmi in Taskaree.

The tag of the ‘serial kisser’ continues to change him even till today, right since his 2004 blockbuster, Anurag Basu’s romantic thriller Murder. “Colloquially, popular culture draws things that have a sticking point. What that sticking point is, nobody knows. You just go out there and do your stuff. It just so happened that in my films, this happened to be a sticking point. You don’t run away from it. You own that more than anything,” says Hashmi with a shrug.

Even at the trailer launch of Taskaree, Hashmi’s co-star Zoya Afroz was asked if erotica was a part of their arsenal in the show. She admitted that when she told anyone she’s doing a show with Hashmi, they gave her a side-eye. “Emraan has taught an entire generation about romance and passion. Why would you run away from that?,” she told SCREEN. Emraan said Zoya confessed to her that she had to sneak in his movies at home in her childhood because she was not allowed to watch them.

“It’s an inherent part of my career, and not something I run away from. You’ve got to own up to everything you do. There are no regrets, and the audience loves you for it. So, it’s fine. They also appreciate the different kind of things you do as an actor. And then they appreciate the more tailor-made commercial spinners, which is a proud thing. I love it because those are ironic characters,” explains Hashmi. To his credit, the actor has often ventured out of that comfort zone to attempt films like Haq, Dibakar Banerjee’s 2012 political thriller Shanghai, and Raj Kumar Gupta’s 2013 black comedy Ghanchakkar. “That’s an interesting film. It’s underrated, but a great dark comedy,” agrees Hashmi.

Emraan Hashmi in Awarapan.

Would Hashmi going back to doing an Awarapan 2 now undo all the efforts he’s taken to undo his past image? “I’m not doing Awarapan 2 for nostalgia. This film was being planned for the past seven years. We just happened to stumble upon a script. We were holding off a sequel, but when we read a script which was taking Shivam’s journey ahead, we got to it. It’s not cashing in,” says Hashmi.

One would imagine Hashmi’s return to Vishesh Films would be an obvious move after the resurgence of that image post his Bads of Bollywood cameo. “We have done that in the past, and a lot of people have been party to that. But we have to see that the audience now has become so smart and perceptive. Social media is such a tricky affair. You can’t be disingenuous with anything. You have a good script and heart in the right place, you’ll make a good film. That’s all there is to it,” clarifies Hashmi.

It’s no coincidence that Bilal Siddiqi has written both The Bads of Bollywood and Awarapan 2. But Hashmi claims him and Bilal go a long way back than that. “I met him through a common friend, Hussain Zaidi. He wrote The Bard of Blood (2015), which was the book I launched with Hussain sir. We wrote a book (The Kiss of Life, 2016) together on my son and his cancer journey. Since then, he’s been a family member. And then after that, Bads and “Akha Bollywood,” that’s him. And now, he’s writing Awarapan 2. He’s family more than a friend right now,” says Hashmi.

The actor is excited to be back as the face of unforgettable bangers. “But there are no songs in this show. There’s no custom officer singing at the airport to the people in the red and green channel while chucking bags into the X-ray machine. That would’ve been another show,” he says in jest. He adds that all he did over the years was to walk in an empty corridor in style, and the music became instantly iconic.

“Little do they know that the choreographer gave me steps, but I was too lazy to do them,” says Hashmi, grinning. When I remind him he did shake his leg (or rather, his finger) in “Jhalak Dikhla Ja” from Aksar (2005), he’s quick to recreate the step and say, “That’s it, that’s how far it gets.” But did he also not do the uninhibited baarat dance in Shanghai? “That Dibakar showed me every move personally on set. I was just mimicking him,” adds Hashmi, still grinning.